Terms such as participatory culture and viral media get thrown around a lot when discussing social media, but considering how quickly online media evolve, few agree on the definitions or dynamics of these type of phenomena. Personally, I find Henry Jenkins’ term “spreadable media” to be most appropriate because it address the active role users play in spreading and creating content. Where as scholars such as Clay Shirkey tend to imply that users lack agency in spreading content, Jenkins recognizes user contributions and puts them at the forefront of his theory.
Before delving into the ways social media enhance our ability to create and spread content, I want to explain how this desire has always existed. While I don’t think a whole lot of people would argue against the assertion that people have always wanted to create and share content, I still want to offer The Knife’s “Pass This On” as an illustration of how this need functioned in a social media-less world.
In this pre-social media context, content spreads through simple, hierarchal patterns. In “Pass This On” the narrator asks somebody to pass on a message through a chain of command. This kind of orderly communication depends on concentrated information being distributed in a systematic way, as Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom outline in their book, The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations.
Social media releases us from this hierarchy and allows us to quickly disseminate media through a web-like structure. When content gets spread to a huge number of people through social media, we often call it “viral,” but Jenkins rejects and renames this phenomenon. Whereas the term “viral media” implies that people get injected with a hypodermic needle of content, Jenkins’ term “spreadable media” implies action on behalf of users. Though it is somewhat abstract, Dirty Projector’s song “Cannibal Resource” provides a portrait of this concept.
While the song is purposely vague, the lines “I think you’re more than a terrified witness / Behind the arbitrary line” summarize my main point. With spreadable media users both create and consume content, so the line between the two roles constantly blurs, and is, in that sense, arbitrary. The narrator’s assertion that “I think you’re more than a terrified witness” supports this interpretation and rejects the idea that consumers are passively implanted with media and information.
While not quite as explicitly stated, “Cannibal Resource” rejects the idea that information spreads hierarchically with the lines “Look around at everyone / Everyone looks alive and waiting.”
In the following verse, the narrator asks, “Can it ask a question? / Can it sing a melody? / Can it be interpreted? / Or is it more than what the eye can see?” These lines emphasize the agentive role of people in spreading media. Furthermore, they hint at users’ ability to jumble and remix content. Before users’ ability to affect content was limited (e.g. how the narrator in “Pass This On” simply asked for her message to be transmitted). But now, Jenkins asserts in Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, users can opt to remix and edit content before retransmitting it.
Beyond transferring and editing content, users have also been empowered with the ability to create entirely new content with unsurpassed ease. Santigold’s “Creator” serves as a prime illustration.
Again, people have always been creating content, but social media exponentially amplifies their ability to spread it beyond their geographic vicinity. Lyrics like “Here all the folks come ask about me / Band wagon, know they used to doubt me / Blind side tend to hit real hard” and “Creepin’ in just like an itch” suggest the sudden, intense way in which users spread media through social media.
SONGS FEATURED IN THIS POST:
ARTICLES FEATURED IN THIS POST:
Brafman, Ori & Beckstrom, Rod A. (2006). The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations. New York, NY: Penguin Books.
Jenkins, Henry (2006). Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York, NY: NYU Press.
Jenkins, Henry (2009). If It Doesn't Spread, It's Dead. Retrieved November 1, 2011 from http://www.henryjenkins.org/2009/02/if_it_doesnt_spread_its_dead_p.html
Shirky, Clay (2008). Here Comes Everybody. New York, NY: Penguin Books.
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